Boys & Girls Club to host clay shoot fundraiser

By Steve Kuhlmann | skuhlmann@mrt.com

Published 7:49 pm, Thursday, September 25, 2014

Supporters of the Boys & Girls Club of the Permian Basin are set to Shoot for Great Futures Oct. 3 at Jake’s Clays.

The sporting event will benefit “all four of the Boys & Girls Clubs, the two in Midland and the two in Odessa,” said Chris Stonedale, resource development director for the Boys & Girls Club of the Permian Basin.

“It’s basically just going toward keeping everything going and keeping it at a high level. We want to make sure we have good staff and that everything is running smoothly so that these kids can have the best opportunity possible while expanding their great futures and seeing what they can possibly achieve,” he said.

Teams of six shooters will fire their way through a 10-station shooting course beginning at either 9 a.m. or 1 p.m. While there are no prizes awarded for the shooting competition, Stonedale said that the best team will win “bragging rights between companies.”

Some fundraisers are not cost-effective, but “the great thing about a clay shoot is (it’s) so inexpensive for us,” said David Chancellor, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of the Permian Basin. “It’s a fun time, it doesn’t bog down our staff and you don’t have big expenses so it’s a win-win-win for everyone.”

Between the two heats — which Stonedale said are expected to run for “a few hours” each — the club will host a luncheon and three raffles for participants. For one raffle, Stonedale said that one in eight participants will win a firearm. In the second raffle, participants will enter to win a Browning Citori 725 rifle. And in the third raffle, five winners receive gift cards from Academy, Best Buy, Southwest Airlines, Lowe's or Hotels.com. Raffle tickets cost $10 each.

“We’re really doing our best to try to get the community involved so we’ve got to get good prizes,” Stonedale said. “We really believe in our mission here.”

Individual shooters can register for $175 and a six-person shooting team can register for $1,050. Advanced registration is preferred.

“We’ll actually take teams the day of until we’re full, so if people would like to come, they absolutely can,” Stonedale said. “But we would like to have it done by the beginning of next week, especially if people want to be part of the sponsors or a station sponsor. We need to get all of that in so that we can get the signs made.”

Participants who don’t own a shotgun, can use a rental if the shooters provide advance notice.

Stonedale said that in choosing a clay shoot as a fundraiser, the organization was “looking for a new, fun way to create awareness about the Boys and Girls Club and try to (raise) more money and try to get some of these companies around the area more involved in changing lives and helping the community.”

The Boys & Girls Club of the Permian Basin serves more than 3,400 children in the area, providing them with rides to the club after school, athletics — flag football, volleyball and cheerleading — educational programs and even meals for those children in need.

“To be a club kid is 12 cents per day,” Chancellor said. “We’re a jewel that most people don’t know about. We’ve (recently) revamped the Midland clubs (and) we have some of the best unit directors in the state.”

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To register for Shoot for Great Futures or for information on the Boys & Girls Club of the Permian Basin, visit www.basinkids.org.